Fourteenth Annual Rejwrt. 517 



there are yet, in all probability, as rich auriferous belts of country at lower 

 levels as have hitherto been worked near the surface, and that gold will be 

 found to quite as great depths as it is practicable to work. Besides this, he 

 has illustrated the structure and behaviour of the reefs by numerous 

 sections, and has also prepared a plan and section of the Ohinemuri and Te 

 Aroha Districts. 



During part of April he was engaged in an examination of the Blue 

 Mountains, on the northern side of the Shag Valley, with the special object 

 of determining the position of the Blue Mountain limestones. These he has 

 shown are interstratified with slate and sandstone of Lower Carboniferous 

 age, which form the first range north of the Shag Biver, and are separated 

 from the Te Anau series of Upper Devonian age, which form the next 

 range by a large fault which traverses the country in a N. 65° W. mag- 

 netic direction, and has a downthrow to the S.E. 



Mr. Cox has also made special reports on the Woodstock Gold Field and 

 the Boss and Humphrey's Gully mining claims on the West Coast, and has 

 examined the lignite deposits at Norsewood, which he reports to be of an 

 inferior character. 



During the latter part of November, and part of December, Mr. McKay 

 was engaged in collecting moa bones at Motanau and examining the country 

 between Motanau and the Cheviot Hills. During this work the principal 

 result arrived at, from an economic point of view, was the discovery of an 

 outcrop of hematite about six feet wide, associated with the Triassic rocks 

 of the coast range near Motanau. An analysis shows that this ore is 

 specially adapted for the manufacture of hematite paint. After this he was 

 engaged in Museum work during the month of January, and during Febru- 

 ary and the early part of March he examined the antimony deposits of the 

 Carrick Banges in Otago and collected fossils from the coal strata of the 

 Bannockburn. He reports that there are three lodes which are apparently 

 convergent, the thickest of these being two feet at its widest part ; an out- 

 crop of antimony can be traced at places on the surface from Alexandra, at 

 the Manuherikia Junction, to the hills west of the Nevis Bluff, on Kawarau 

 Biver, a distance of over twelve miles. Dining April and May he was 

 engaged, at the request of the Hon. the Minister of Mines, in making a 

 typical collection of the rocks of the Beefton District hi duplicate. One of 

 these collections was deposited at Beefton as the nucleus of a museum. 

 While thus engaged he made a detailed examination of the relations of the 

 various beds and confirmed the views previously held concerning them. He 

 also gained important information concerning the extent of the coal-bearing 

 areas, proving their probable continuance, as a basin, across the Inangahua 

 Valley, comparatively near the surface about Beefton, but at much deeper 



